Wave of small projects boosts downtown development

Jun. 22, 2012

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There’s plenty of evidence of a development wave washing over downtown Greenville, and some of it isn’t noisy at all, with almost all the work being done inside buildings that have stood for decades.

A local real estate company plans to restore three old industrial buildings in the West End to create a 62,000-square-foot, mixed-use development that would include a new headquarters for Oobe Inc., the homegrown uniform services company.

The three buildings, whose features include heart-pine floors and walls three bricks thick, sit beside each other on 2.5 acres along Markley Street between Fluor Field and the Kroc Center.

Jenks Patrick, president of Jenks Inc. Realty, said his company plans to break ground on the $6 million project, called Markley Terrace, this fall.

The development would take shape a stone’s throw from where Charlotte developer Lat Purser plans to build 150 apartments on top of parking at the corner of Rhett and Wardlaw streets.

The three buildings that Patrick plans to refurbish for use as offices, light industry, event space and a restaurant were constructed along the Norfolk and Southern railroad track in the mid-1900s.

One was used to make curtains and drapes and the others to store textiles and textile machinery, he said.

Later, they became operations for Smith Dray Line, the moving and storage company now located at the intersection of Interstates 85 and 185.

The buildings are within an area identified as the Warehouse District in a master plan of downtown prepared for the city in 2008.

That plan by consultant Sasaki Associates called for old buildings in the West End between Academy and Main streets to be redeveloped into “cool space” for startup companies and entrepreneurs in media, design and information.

The three buildings are connected by a concrete platform that formerly served as a loading dock. The loading dock would become “social space” with outdoor seating, under Patrick’s plans.

Patrick said he also plans outdoor seating on a plaza between two of the buildings and on the rooftop of one building where he envisions a restaurant.

He’s negotiating with the city over new sidewalks, landscaping and other improvements along Markley Street.

Patrick has an MBA from Clemson University and formerly worked as an industrial engineer and project manager at the International Center for Automotive Research.

Joe Patrick, Jenks Patrick’s brother and vice president of operations for Oobe, said the company would lease 15,000 square feet in one of the buildings at Markley Terrace.

Mix of developments

The biggest development downtown at the moment is One, twin office towers over shopping space under construction in the middle of Main Street.

But other, smaller developments are popping up all around the downtown area.

They include two apartment complexes, at least three restaurants, a bank branch and shops for selling kitchen equipment, craft beer, gourmet popcorn and coffee.

“We’re having a lot more people come through proposing projects than we did a year ago,” said Jean Pool, the city’s planning and development manager.

One of the apartment complexes — planned by Greenville developer Tom Croft — would offer 100 units with parking on high ground along Rhett Street next to RiverPlace.

Purser plans his five-story apartment complex close to Fluor Field, near the Old Cotton Warehouse one block off of Main Street.

The city’s Design Review Board recently approved demolition of two buildings on the site, but asked Purser’s architect to return in August with a modified design.

The apartment developments dovetail with the city’s longtime goal of encouraging a variety of housing options downtown, Pool said.

Apartments that are reasonably priced make it possible for more people to live downtown, which “makes it a better place for all of us, a much more dynamic area,” she said.

K.C. Sanjay, senior real estate economist with AXIOmetrics, an apartment market research firm in Dallas, told GreenvilleOnline.com that supplies began to dwindle across the country after the recession hit because developers and lenders were reluctant to build new complexes.

But as the recovery continues, more people are deciding to rent instead of buy, and apartment demand is surging.

“Last year we saw occupancy go up in virtually every market in the U.S., and we saw rent grew also all over the country,” Sanjay said.

In Greenville, AXIOmetrics predicts the apartment vacancy rate will fall from 7.1 percent in 2011 to 5.7 percent this year.

Greenville developer Adam Chandler, who’s planning 35 apartments where horse stables have long stood beside Cleveland Park, said he figures a lot of people lost money buying homes in recent years, or know people who did, and that’s prompted more interest in renting.

“There’s just a definite need for people wanting to rent, where the trend five years ago was they wanted to own,” Chandler said.

Developer Russ Davis, who is building the 48-unit 100 East complex downtown along Washington Street, said that Greenville should get at least 2,000 new renter households over the next couple of years.

Restaurants heating up

In restaurant development, American Roadside Burgers plans to open along McBee Avenue by the end of the year, said Rich LaVecchia, chief executive of the Charlotte-based group.

The restaurant is planned at a former gas station between the Jimmy John’s sandwich shop and Publix.

LaVecchia said downtown Greenville is one of his favorite places in the Carolinas and that he turned down sites on Woodruff Road in favor of the downtown location.

“We wanted to be on Main Street, but there really wasn’t anything there,” he said.

In other restaurant activity, Larkin’s is up-fitting the space across from City Hall where Hot Dog King used to be, and Mac’s Speed Shop just opened next to Fluor Field.

Another business that just opened downtown is The Growler Station, which sells craft beer next to Smiley’s Acoustic Café along Augusta Street.

Owner T. Craig Pavlish said the store uses proprietary technology that makes it possible to bottle beer on site.

He picked downtown Greenville for The Growler Station’s second location after New York City partly because he and his wife went to Clemson University and she’s from Greenville.

'Responsible development'

Pavlish also said he likes the redevelopment occurring in the West End.

“We think it’s responsible development and the city really has their thumb on it, what they want to do, how they want to do it,” he said.

Elsewhere downtown, Port City Java is returning to the same location at Wachovia Place along Main Street that it left in 2008, but this time the coffee shop will be owned by the Wilmington, N.C.-based chain instead of a franchisee, said chief executive Steven Schnitzler.

Farther away from Main Street, CertusBank is building its first branch from the ground up at the corner of Church and Augusta streets where a Kentucky Fried Chicken used to be, said Angela Webb, the bank’s president.

And along Poinsett Highway not far from downtown, the Greenville County Redevelopment Authority has plans to redevelop the former Piedmont Industries shirt factory, said Martin Livingston, executive director.

Livingston said the redevelopment authority has an agreement with state environmental regulators to clean up the dilapidated four-building, four-acre complex at the corner of Henry and Hammett streets.

“We’re hoping it can be some kind of light manufacturing or commercial building,” Livingston said.